Top 10: Failed Product Launches

Number 2

Virtual Boy

Prior to its launch, Nintendo hyped Virtual Boy as little short of a portable virtual reality device featuring actual 3D graphics. Adding to the excitement was the fact that legendary developer Gunpei Yokoi — partly responsible for such classic arcade games as Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., as well as one of Nintendo’s great cash cows, Game Boy — was the brains behind it. Yet when Nintendo met delays with its equally hyped Nintendo 64, it rushed a flawed Virtual Boy to the market.

For a “portable” device it was excessively expensive and, furthermore, there was a paucity of games available for it. Adding to the heap of problems, so many users complained the display gave them headaches that Nintendo issued a warning about the problem, going so far as to suggest users take 15-minute breaks every 30 minutes.

Despite over 30 incredible years with Nintendo, Virtual Boy’s failure essentially forced Gunpei Yokoi from the company. A year later, he would die in a car accident.

Number 1

New Coke

After watching their share of the soft drink market shrivel for decades, in 1985 the Coca-Cola bottling company decided to do something about it: Alter the very product that kept them in business for almost 100 years and alienate an otherwise loyal following. At a somewhat disastrous news conference on April 23, Coca-Cola made the announcement that surprised even highly suspicious officials at rival PepsiCo. They introduced New Coke with the self-defeating slogan: “The Best Just Got Better!”

Successful marketing campaigns in Washington DC and New York provided Coke with some early encouragement, but much to everyone’s surprise when the backlash arrived it had little to do with the taste. Rather, Coke drinkers across the country — and especially in the southeast where Coke is headquartered — expressed a fierce sense of disappointment and betrayal with the company. Feeling the heat, on July 10 Coca-Cola announced the return of the original formula. Since it’s hard for most to believe that a well-established company with huge brand recognition could make such a monumental mistake, conspiracy theories persist about Coca-Cola’s true role in this debacle.

failure to launch

There’s an inescapable sense of schadenfreude attached to watching the crash and burn of an overhyped product. Fortunately, for those of us that enjoy such a spectacle, there will always be companies whose greed prevents them from doing the most basic of homework.